The Host
by KayInSpringtime
Summary: Abbie and Crane uncover a mass deception
Washington's bible said that there were good souls under the power of this evil. That these people needed to be freed of the will of this demon the Soul Eater. Most people in Sleepy Hollow were not overtaken by this plague. There was still plenty of victims this demon could infect. Little did the infected know that they were about to be saved by the witnesses foretold by God in the bible and the only helping hand they had that hadn't been corrupted by evil was one of the witnesses' fellow FBI agent.

The mahogany grandfather clock against the wall sounds as powerful screech from an infected lingers in the distance. Abbie sat atop the stairs, her gun aimed at the front door. She listens quietly as her finger wraps around the trigger. It had been hours since she'd seen her husband and now he maybe one of them. The shades of the Soul Eater, were demonic minions that were under the influence of their demonic master. This demon looked normal on the outside but when it revealed itself it transformed into smoke and sucked your soul out from your body and into its own you became its next minion, your soul held hostage within its body sustaining it's life force.

Before they went on this mission, Crane described the host demon in excruciating detail, in its original form the soul eater was a demonic spirit that overtakes a human vessel infected by it's sting the demonic parasite latches on to the host body and slowly takes over leaving the host spirit just coherent enough to do its will. It's torturous and eventually fatal. So the demon infects many and chooses the most strong to inhabit continuing the cycle.

Abbie wandered her home, her gun in hand as she paced the floors.

Standing in her kitchen she checks her phone, not a single message or a chiding side note from Sophie or Crane, nothing. He should've been home by now, he promised her he would be. Yet the door had not opened, his voice hadn't rang out to greet her. He was still among them.

 _I should've never left. I should've stayed with him. I should be out there._

The squeak of the side door off the laundry room and shuffling of boots stirs her out of her worrying as the footsteps near her. Abbie takes a step back and aims her gun at the doorway. Her hair swept up above her head in a knot. Her hands trembled as her finger wrapped around the trigger of her semi-automatic...

* * *

Crane tried not to kill the infected humans, tried to spare their lives if at all possible but he made a promise to Abbie and he intended to keep it. She had already lost Miss Jenny to this infection and Master Corbin had been missing for days. He wouldn't allow himself to be lost to her, not when she needed him. Outside of the archives the infected man lunged for him, lucky Crane had on his gloves and his high collared shirt and easily missed his rushed attempt. The man was ravenously following him he had shot him twice already.

He aimed his gun and pulled the trigger watched as the man fell onto the pavement outside of the archives. He'd blown a considerably large hole into the man's knee cap and bright red blood poured from his wound and eroded the concrete beneath him. Crane had already fortified the tunnels beneath but out in the open the infected roamed among the pure citizens of Sleepy Hollow in disguise doing their masters work attacking those who would disrupt its plans. Hopping in to Master Corbin's truck he high tailed it home.

* * *

Sophie had been gone for hours searching for Joe trying to use his demonic creature to lead her towards this host who held the souls of human's hostage in its stolen hijacked body.

She walked into Abbie's kitchen shocked as Abbie stood behind the island armed.

Sophie jumped back "Abbie don't shoot me"

"Show me your hands"

"Abbie, I'm not one of those things. I am not infected."

"Show me your damned hands. Now Sophie! Damn it doesn't make me do this!"

Abbie watched as Sophie exposed her palms to her as she raised her hands. She had no marks, no branding of the creature Crane called the Soul Eater. Abbie lowered her gun as Sophie joined her in the kitchen.

"It got Jenny, Abbie"

"I know, I know it got her and Joe is somewhere out there to"

"Crane?"

"I'm not sure, he said he'd hold things down, gather some more research, fortify things at the archives and meet me here, he's not home, yet"

"We have to kill the host"

"But first we have to find out who it is. The host doesn't look like a demonic creature. From what Crane told me it camouflages itself in human skin. It looks just like any other human would until it's weakened and its demonic form is exposed. We have to find it and kill it soon for Jenny's sake."

"And we're running out of time"

Abbie and Sophie jumped as the front door slammed open the sound of the floorboards creaking under the weight of an intruder.


End file.
